Another reason why I think the idiots at Titan push the UK comics towards a younger audience as opposed to all ages like Bongo themselves. I got a couple UK comics out of curiosity, and it's the same problem as with Simpsons Classics - it's not like they really make the images any bigger, it just means there's an ugly white border around every page. Definitely agree, an absolute waste off paper. From what I've read, the UK comics regularly come with special 'prizes', etc, that are aimed at little kids? I'd honestly be embarrassed if I had to purchase those.

The Australia comics were published by Otter Press and were identical to the US editions, except they were printed on thicker, non-glossy paper and had ads for other Otter Press publications. The first 80 or so issues had an Australian version of Junk Mail, which was more like the US version than the UK one, but after that until 113 it was the same letters as the US one (meaning my letter that was in the final Junk Mail column until its' resurrection was printed in at least two editions of #113 ), just with Australian drawings (I had a picture in Aus #95).

Some interesting little tidbits about the Aussie releases:- #32 was the first issue published, and was bi-monthly like the US edition. To fill the gap in every other month, they went back and published the original issues (so one month it was #32, then #1, then #33, then #2). A cool way to let everyone get all the issues. Otter Press chose to go monthly at the same time as the US did (#51), so with their old release pattern they only managed to release up to #14. #15 to #31 have never officially been released.- Bart Simpson was published as a digest-size (ashcan to you poms ), smaller than a standard comic book. The first 15 issues included an issue of Radioactive Man inserted in the middle (so it was 16 pages of Bart, the 32-page RM issue, then the final 16 pages of Bart) as they had never been released here before. After all the RM issues were used up, they started doing weird things, such as reprinting stories from Super Spectacular, and sometimes would combine two US issues into one Aus edition (always 64 pages). Because of this, US #50, for example, was part of something like Aus #42. Was released every 3 months instead of every 2 (and then 1) months).- Futurama was the same as Simpsons Comics, almost a direct clone of the American edition.- Simpsons Classics was digest/ashcan sized.- Comic Book Guy was published as a "Simpsons Comics Presents" title.- For some reason they started publishing "The Best of the Simpsons" about 7 years ago, with the same basic cover design as the UK edition. However, ours was standard comic book sized and included one complete issue of an old comic - for example, the first was #32 (as that was the first issue released here), complete with the original Bongo Beat, letters, etc. With #42 they changed the title merely to "Simpsons Comics" and marketed it as a special edition of old issues. Sometime down the track (#48 I think), they started printing it in digest/ashcan size. - They also started "The Best of Bart Simpson" at the same time, which was an Australian exclusive, which reprinted all the issues in their original order. Same deal as above, they changed the name to "Bart Simpson" and started issuing it as a digest size after a couple years.- At the same time, they started reprinting Itchy and Scratchy, Bartman, Lisa and Krusty using the same kind of layout as Best of the Simpsons.- Otter Press also release the trade paperbacks, however these are ALSO shrunk down into digest size. - THOH and Super Spectacular were originally released in standard comic book size, and then were also shrunk to digest size.- They even cashed in from the Free Comic Book Day releases and put them on sale for $5 each, what the.

Basically... the publishers here were obsessed with reprints and shrinking the dimensions of the comics more and more.

Note my use of "was" and "were" when referring to all these comics - that's because as of around 4 or 5 months ago, Otter Press discontinued all regular Bongo series (yes, even Simpsons Comics and Futurama). They're still putting out trade paperbacks for some bizarre reason, and have just put out last year's Free Comic Book Day comic with the dimensions of a UK comic. Very, very odd. I don't particularly care as I've been exclusive to the US editions for years, but I wouldn't be surprised if they stopped printing them all because people were sick of the constant changes and reprints.

Another reason why I think the idiots at Titan push the UK comics towards a younger audience as opposed to all ages like Bongo themselves.

Yeah. When I saw it on the shelves, I always saw it stacked into the back of the kiddie section. or in between the adult and kiddie sections depending. Then there's also a lot of censorship I've seen. In Simpsons #100, Homer shouted "Holy Crap! That's me!", in the UK version it was changed to "Holy Crud!", like kids haven't heard the word crap before.

From what I've read, the UK comics regularly come with special 'prizes', etc, that are aimed at little kids? I'd honestly be embarrassed if I had to purchase those.

Yeah. These days, practically every issue comes with something stupid, they didn't used to. And practically none of them have anything to do with the Simpsons. The last one that was really of any significance was an inflatable Plopper. They're taped to the covers, and in most cases, you'd ruin the cover trying to get it off, devaluing the comic, it started happening around the time they stopped using the glossy paper.

I wrote about it in my editorial, that'll be on the site once you get around to making an update.